My actual .emacs file has a ton of things unrelated to this, so here are the relevant bits:

    ;; Make the window simpler
    (tool-bar-mode -1)
    (scroll-bar-mode -1)
    (menu-bar-mode -1)
    (fringe-mode 0)

Powerline and the color theme are installed separately. You can get powerline using the new package manager through M-x package-list-packages. You might have to configure some additional package sources first:

    (require 'package)
    (add-to-list 'package-archives 
                 '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org /packages/"))
    (add-to-list 'package-archives
                 '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))
    (package-initialize)

You can then run powerline using

    (require 'powerline)

It might take a little more configuration to get the powerline colors matching to what you want. You can also customize the shape of the separator: it doesn't have to be an arrow.

Unfortunately, the blackboard theme in the package manager is using the old color-theme package which has been made obsolete with Emacs 24. You should use the version ported to the new and improved theming mechanism[1].

[1]: https://github.com/don9z/blackboard-theme

Download that and put it in ~/.emacs.d/themes. Now you can set it up with:

    (setq custom-theme-directory "~/.emacs.d/themes/")
    (setq custom-safe-themes t)
    (load-theme 'blackboard)

I hope that helps.